Lessons learned in recent days with Orioles

CLEVELAND - A sense of calm finally settled over Cleveland yesterday. Two professional wrestling events over the weekend drew huge crowds at the arena and football stadium. Comedian Martin Lawrence’s standup tour made a stop at the arena. The city hosted the 2024 World Yo-Yo contest, which had its ups and downs. The Guardians inducted pitcher CC Sabathia into their Hall of Fame and welcomed back team legends like Mike Hargrove, Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Kenny Lofton and Andre Thornton. And an hour’s drive away were the NFL Hall of Fame inductions in Canton.

Hotel space was limited. Rooms cost the approximate amount of a home mortgage.

Interesting to learn that Cleveland is the entertainment capital of the world.

There’s also the craziness of the Guardians losing Shane Bieber to Tommy John surgery and James Karinchak to a shoulder injury and being the only .600 team in baseball. And the Residence Inn a few blocks from the ballpark being perhaps the only hotel in the U.S. that doesn’t have a water dispenser to refill bottles – not even in the “fitness center.” Wanna hydrate? It’s gonna cost you.

What else did we find out?

Jackson Holliday is poppin’.

This is the version of Holliday that everyone expected the first time, which seemed unreasonable because he hadn’t played in the majors and brought limited exposure to Triple-A.

Holliday 2.0 seems much more comfortable and is just letting his talent play. It might help that he isn’t swarmed by media every time he walks into the clubhouse or dugout. He handled the attention like a veteran, but it had to be distracting and unsettling.

The routine now fits a ballplayer instead of baseball’s No. 1 prospect and son of Matt Holliday. He takes ground balls every day to sharpen his skills at second base. He hit early in the cage yesterday. No one is outworking him. And no one is having more fun.

The Orioles were down to their last out Friday night when Holliday lined a single into center field off All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase. A third straight cutter was redirected 100.1 mph up the middle.

Manager Brandon Hyde joked that players tend to just swing against Clase and hope to get lucky.

“No, that was a really good swing by him,” Hyde said. “I love to see him get the base hit early in the game the other way and then base hit through the middle off a premier, premier closer. I think he’s much more under control in the batter’s box. He’s much more behind the baseball. He’s not as jumpy since he’s come up.”

Holliday went 2-for-34 in his first stint and is 7-for-18 with three consecutive multi-hit games. And, of course, the grand slam onto Eutaw Street before the flight to Cleveland. He's special and the Orioles were 100 percent right to make him untouchable at the deadline.

Holliday also has serious Golden Tee skills.

Like, really serious.

The golf arcade game usually found in bars, and not nearly as many as in the days when I played, is a popular feature in the visiting clubhouse at Progressive Field. Holliday attacked it, setting three course records out of five available.

He typed in “JAX” to mark his spot atop a leader board that also included the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman.

"Once I started playing that in Norfolk, I started hitting good again," Holliday said Saturday. "I made a hole-in-one on a par-five today, so I think that was a guaranteed two hits. So I’ll have to try to do that tomorrow, as well.”

Holliday did, and he homered and singled.

The Orioles might want to consider clearing space in their home clubhouse. They have pool and bumper pool tables and a putting green. The Pop-A-Shot disappeared. (Did Austin Hays take it to Philly?) The chess board and decks of cards aren’t in the way.

I didn’t see the hole-in-one but I heard it because Holliday let out an enthusiastic yell. He's fun on and off the field.

Holliday said his family has the Golden Tee game at their home and he grew up competing with his father, who got really good at it from his days in St. Louis. Dad usually schools the son.

Colton Cowser is in April form.

That isn’t a good thing if you’re Anthony Santander, but it’s ideal for Cowser, who was the American League’s Rookie of the Month in April.

Cowser extended his hitting streak to 17 games to tie Trey Mancini’s club rookie record. It’s only the fifth to span at least 15 games along with Mancini, Brian Roberts (2001), Eddie Murray (1977) and Rich Coggins (1973).

Cowser’s streak also impressed because he began yesterday slashing .383/.441/.633 during it with three doubles, four home runs, 15 RBIs and seven walks. And his walk in the third inning extended his on-base streak to 19 games.

Hyde doesn’t see a change in approach with Cowser. It’s more about experience.

“I just think he’s racking up major league at-bats,” Hyde said. “He got off to that great start, hitting a ton of fastballs, hitting fastballs hard, and then teams just started really spinning him off-speed stuff, a lot of changeups, a lot of splits, and he wasn’t making much of an adjustment for a couple months. And you see it now.

“The ability to hit the off-speed and the ability to recognize it, I think that’s where I see the biggest improvement.”

Can’t put Eloy Jiménez in a box unless he's hitting.

The platoon right-handed bat description didn’t fit this weekend.

Jiménez was the designated hitter Saturday against Guardians left-hander Joey Cantillo, singled twice and drove in a run. He stayed in the lineup yesterday against right-hander Gavin Williams, with Ryan Mountcastle given part of the afternoon off, and had a double, run-scoring single and single in his first three at-bats. The last hit came against right-handed reliever Eli Morgan.

The former Silver Slugger winner is 5-for-9 with the Orioles.

It’s a safe bet that he won’t play the outfield. But you no longer can assume that he’s strictly on the roster to face lefties.

Austin Slater gives Hyde another leadoff possibility.

Slater batted first Saturday night and had a double and single off Cantillo. He’s sat atop the order in 161 games.

He’s no stranger to the altitude.

“It was definitely a huge vote of confidence and believing in my track record,” Slater said, “and just believing that it’s been a rough stretch and that it’s about time to turn it around.”

Look for Slater in the leadoff spot the next time that the Orioles face a southpaw.

Corbin Burnes' 12th win is a career high.

You'd just assume that he registered more.

Of course, it's a pretty useless stat. Burnes allowed four earned runs and five total yesterday in five innings. It was his worst outing with the O's.

The offense picked him up, totaling nine runs and 15 hits. It owed him.

Also, pitcher win totals aren't important. That's more of a reminder than a lesson.

Jordan Westburg stayed close.

Westburg is on the injured list with a fractured right hand and might not return until late September. However, he’s on the road trip.

The plastic cast that Westburg wears runs up to his elbow and isolates his thumb.

Cole Irvin stayed in the organization.

The flurry of deadline moves swept away Irvin, who was designated for assignment.

I made a bold assumption that a team would claim Irvin as fifth starter/long reliever/swingman, but he cleared waivers. That led to some confusion when he appeared on the transactions page as being outrighted and on Triple-A Norfolk’s roster, then disappeared the following day.

The official news came yesterday. Irvin cleared and accepted the assignment. He had the choice because of his major league service time.

The Orioles could use the pitching depth.

Martin Lawrence still does standup comedy.

News to me.